Star Wars Battlefront 2 Microtransactions Returning Soon

Now that the dust has settled on Star Wars Battlefront 2, it’s time for EA to monetize that sucker and they’ll be doing so “in the next few months,” according to Blake Jorgensen in an explanation to the Wall Street Journal.

The finance chief of EA says that “We’ll do it when we think it’s ready.”

The launch of Star Wars Battlefront 2 wasn’t a bright spot in the year for Electronic Arts. The company sold a lower than expected number of copies of Battlefront 2 due to controversy that sparked up just days before release. According to EA’s recent earnings for the third quarter, Battlefront 2 sold approximately 9 million copies which was lower than the 10 million they had conservatively estimated. EA says that the game will sell between 1-3 million more copies by the end of the fiscal year 2018.

Any way you cut it, Star Wars Battlefront 2 has not outdone its predecessor. The 2016 release of Battlefront saw EA selling 14 million copies by the end of the fiscal year.

As for Battlefront 2, the backlash was so strong ahead of the release of the game that EA and DICE decided to pull microtransactions from it just one day before launch. With fans and critics citing pay to win mechanics in the game in the form of purchasable loot boxes, the company needed to try and hold back some of the negativity towards the game. The game did launch without the controversial loot box system, but in a game whose progression was tied so closely to this mechanic of opening boxes and building characters, the game hasn’t felt like cohesive experience thus far.

To their credit, EA has been working to make changes to the in-game progression system by offering players easier paths to earning loot boxes, crafting materials, and in-game currency to purchase playable heroes.